Essays on Ancient Greek Literature and Culture: Volume 2, Comedy, Herodotus, Hellenistic and Imperial Greek Poetry, the Novels


Book Description

In this book one of the world's leading Hellenists brings together his many contributions over four decades to our understanding of major genres of Greek literature, above all the Greek novel, but also Attic Comedy, fifth-century historiography, and Hellenistic and Imperial Greek poetry. Many are already essential reading, such as the chapter on the figure of Lycidas in Theocritus' Idyll 7, or two chapters on the ancient readership of Greek novels. Discussions of Imperial Greek poetry published three decades ago opened up a world almost entirely neglected by scholars. Several chapters address literary and linguistic issues in Longus' novel Daphnis and Chloe, complementing the author's commentary published in 2019; two contribute to a better understanding of the enigmatic Aethiopica of Heliodorus; and many explore important questions arising from examination of the form of the Greek novel as a whole. This is the second of a planned three-volume collection.




Thecla's Devotion


Book Description

Second century apocryphal Christian texts are Christian fiction: they draw on the motifs of contemporary pagan stories of romance, travel and adventure to entertain their readers, but also to explore what it means to be Christian. The Thecla episodein the Apocryphal Acts of Paul recounts the conversion of a young pagan woman, her rejection of marriage, her narrow escapes from martyrdom and the end of her story as an independent, ascetic evangelist. In Thecla's Devotion, J.D. McLarty reads the Thecla episode against a paradigm pagan romance, Callirhoe: for both texts the passions are key to the unfolding of the plot - how are unruly emotions to be managed and controlled? The pagan would answer, 'through reason'. This study uses the portrayal of emotion within character and plot to explore the response of the Thecla episode to this key question for Christian identity formation.







The Ancient Novel and Beyond


Book Description

This volume comprises the revised versions of selected papers read at the International Conference on the Ancient Novel (Groningen, July 2000). The papers cover a wide range of scholarly issues that were prominent in the programme of the conference, and feature the most recent approaches to research on the ancient novel. The essays combine judicious use of literary theory with traditional scholarship, and examine the ancient novels and related texts, such as Oriental tales and Christian narrative, both in their larger, literary, cultural and social context, and as sources of inspiration for Byzantine and modern fiction. This book is important not only for classicists and literary historians, but also for a general public of those interested in narrative fiction.







Space in the Ancient Novel


Book Description

This special issue of Ancient Narrative Supplementum 1, entitled 'Space in the Ancient Novel', brings together a collection of revised papers, originally presented at the International conference under the same title organized by the Department of Philology (Division of Classics) of the University of Crete and held in Rethymnon, on May 14-15, 2001. This conference inaugurated what is hoped to become a new series of biennial International meetings on the Ancient Novel (RICAN, Rethymnon International Conferences on the Ancient Novel) which aspires to continue the reputable tradition of the Groningen Colloquia on the Novel, established by Heinz Hofmann and Maaike Zimmerman. Ancient Narrative Supplementum 1 includes two additional contributions by Catherine Connors and Judith Perkins, both originally presented in ICAN 2000 at Groningen in July 25-30, 2000 and included here in revised form, and an article by Stelios Panayotakis, which closely relates to the theme of the Rethymnon conference.




Re-Wiring The Ancient Novel, 2 Volume set


Book Description

The Fifth International Conference on the Ancient Novel, which was held in Houston, Texas, in the fall of 2015, brought together scholars and students of the ancient novel from all over the world in order to share new and significant developments about this fascinating field of study and its important place in the field of Classical Studies. The essays contained in these two volumes are clear evidence that the ancient novel has become a valuable part of the Classics canon and its scholarly attempts to understand the ancient Graeco-Roman world.